Comparative Study of Geomagnetic and Weather Indices for Biophysical and Medical Applications

A method is proposed for studying long-term data series characterizing ordinary and space weather in order to determine their correlation dependencies necessary for practical use. We used information on air temperature measured on the territory of the Russian Federation, the geomagnetic index Ap, and solar wind parameters (temperature Tsw, speed Vsw, and density Nsw) from 2000 to 2020, inclusive. It is shown that, among the studied characteristics of space weather, only the pair Tsw–Nsw is statistically independent (the correlation R is close to zero). Pairs of parameters Ap–Nsw (R = 0.27) and Ap–Tsw (R = 0.31) are weakly dependent, and pairs Ap–Vsw (R = 0.44) and Vsw–Tsw (R = 0.66) are highly dependent, which must be taken into account when using them in practice. Series of local air temperature measurements on the territory of the Russian Federation are weakly mutually correlated with R = 0.22 ± 0.03. The hypothesis about the mutual independence of the parameters of ordinary weather (using the example of air temperature measurements) and the parameters of space weather has been studied. The correlation of air temperature averaged over the entire territory of the Russian Federation with space weather parameters was found to be R = 0.014 ± 0.008. Certain geographic regions recorded higher values. The highest correlation of the geomagnetic index Ap with air temperature (0.048–0.049) was recorded in the village of Lermontovka (Khabarovsk krai), Cape Zolotoy (Primorskii krai), and the city of Dalnerechensk (Primorskii krai).